Roger Sherman Baldwin

Roger Sherman Baldwin (4 January 1793-19 February 1863) was Governor of Connecticut from 1 May 1844 to 6 May 1846, succeeding Chauncey Fitch Cleveland and preceding Isaac Toucey, and US Senator from Connecticut from 11 November 1847 to 4 March 1851, succeeding Jabez W. Huntington and preceding Isaac Toucey.

Biography
Roger Sherman Baldwin was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1793, the maternal grandson of founding father Roger Sherman. He graduated from Yale College in 1811 at the young age of eighteen, and he became a lawyer and a liberal US Whig Party politician. From 1826 to 1828, he was a member of the New Haven city government, and he served in the State House of Representatives from 1837 to 1838. In 1841, Baldwin was hired to represent the captured African slaves in United States v. The Amistad, during which he proved to Judge Jeremy Coglin that the slaves were born in Africa and were therefore not only not property of Spain, but also free men. In 1844, he was elected Governor of Connecticut as a result of his newfound popularity, serving a two-year term. In 1847, he filled a vacant US Senate seat,  and he would be a Republican Party elector during the 1860 presidential election due to his abolitionist views. He died in New Haven in 1863 at the age of 70.